Reclosable sales packing, e.g. for meat slices

ABSTRACT

A popular type of sales packing for sliced meat comprises a cup shaped lower part having an outstanding edge flange, to which is peelably welded a tight cover sheet as an original closure, while for the reclosing of the cup there is provided a semistiff skirt lid above the cover sheet and in holding engagement with the outer edge of the edge flange. These lids are expensive and unsuitable in more respects, and according to the invention they are avoided in that a self-adhesive label (10) placed on the cover sheet (8) has an edge area located outside a cut line (11) in the sheet, whereby this system will constitute the recloseable part of the packing. As an original closure is used an outer barrier sheet (14), which is removeably secured by peel-seal welding to the edge flange of the lower part or to the top side of the cover sheet (8) as welded to this flange.

The present invention relates to a packing of the widely known type usedas a sales packing for certain foodstuffs, notably small piles of meatslices, and comprising a cup shaped lower part made by die-shaping of aplastic sheet, and upper closing means fastened to a projecting top edgeflange of the lower part. Normally, the closing means are formed by apiece of a tight sheet welded to the said edge flange, and an upperreclosing lid, which is also die-shaped from a plastic sheet material,viz. so as to have depending edge portions, which can be releasably heldby engagement with the outer edge of the edge flange. Normally, thetight cover sheet carries a paper label, which, in addition to astandard print, may be provided with a price and date marking. Thereclosing lid is transparent.

The cover sheet as forming the real barrier closure of the cup part isremovable by tearing, normally in being peel welded to the edge flange,and the associated upper lid is usable solely for reclosing the packingonce the cover sheet has been entirely or partly torn off in connectionwith the first opening of the package.

There are some problems connected with these packings, particularly withrespect to the reclosing lid. These lids are difficult to mountproperly, both at the original closing of the packing and by later,manual reclosings. It is not unusual to find packings without lids inthe shop cold counters, just as loose, torn off lids may be found. Thelids are produced by thermoshaping of a relatively thick sheet material,and difficulties have been encountered as to the choice of materialsthat are well suited for use and also suitable as far as treatment ofhousehold waste is concerned. Thereby the lids tend to be relativelyexpensive.

It can be a further drawback that the printed information indicating thekind of the packed product and e.g. its keeping date will normally beremoved by the tearing off of the cover sheet.

It is the purpose of the invention to provide a packing of the relevanttype which will be usable in an acceptable manner without being havingthe discussed, particular reclosing lid.

The packing according to the invention is characteristic in beingprovided with two layers of cover sheets, viz. an inner cover sheet andand outer barrier sheet. The cover sheet is welded to the edge flange ofthe cup part, while the upper barrier sheet is secured to the sameflange by a tight, but peelable welding, preferably in an indirectmanner, by welding to the edge area of the cover sheet. The barriersheet constitutes the long term sealed portion of the packing, and it issimply torn off when the packing is to be used. The label of paper orplastic sheet is still located on the inner cover sheet, but here itwill remain in place, because only the barrier sheet is removed. Theinner cover sheet is prepared such that shortly inside the inner mouthedge of the cup member it is provided with a cutting or perforation lineextending along a suitable partial length of the circumference of thecup mouth, and the paper label is dimensioned and mounted such that itprojects beyond this line, the label being removably held by means of apressure sensitive adhesive.

Thereby it will be the inner sheet that will provide for the desiredre-closability. The paper label may have a projecting tag that is notprovided with adhesive or is otherwise easily seizable for an initialpulling up of the label; however, as also known from certain prior artpackings that are closed in a similar manner, the result will be apulling up not only of the label, but also of the underlying sheetportion inside the said cutting or perforation line, i.e. the packingwill be opened. E.g. by a marking on the label it may be indicated thatthe pulling up should be effected only to a certain limit, e.g. untilabout half of the cup mouthing has been uncovered, as this may besufficient for the removal of goods from the cup part. In return, aface-to-face engagement will be maintained between the label and astationary part of the cover sheet; this implies that upon the removalof goods from the packing the pulled up label and sheet portion may bereturned in a well defined manner. By such a returning or laying downthe label edge portions protruding from the cover sheet will be broughtinto adhering engagement with the cover sheet edge portion which hasremained in rigid welding connection with the edge flange of the cupmember, preferably slightly protruding inwardly in the upper mouthing ofthe cup member, and hereby the desired reclosing function is achievablein a very easy and safe manner, because the pulled up area, when beingswung down, will be self guiding for assuming a correct reclosingposition.

It should be mentioned that the discussed kind of reclosability is knownfrom some special sheet packings containing cleansing napkins. At oneside of the packing the sheet is provided with a cut tongue portionwhich, when swung up, will leave an opening through which the nextnapkin can be removed. The tongue portion is covered by a self adheringpaper or plastic label, which projects beyond the edge of the tongue soas to thereby be usable for a reclosing, by adherence to the packingsheet around the tongue portion. With the invention it has beenrecognized that this reclosing technique may be used with advantage inthe present connection, even though this will imply that preferably thecover sheet should have an edge area projecting slightly inwardly fromthe upper mouthing edge of the cup member of the packing; thereby it isachieved with increased safety that the openable sheer portion will notat any place be firmly welded to the cup member. In practice thispotential drawback with respect to the inwardly protruding edge portionwill be without any real significance, and it will condition that inreturn it will be possible to totally dispense with the far moreproblematic reclosing lid.

The considered known reclosing technique, which is also known from fromU.S. Pat. No. Re. 27,361, will not be directly applicable in connectionwith the discussed foodstuff packings, but according to the invention ithas been recognized that the technique will be usable when applied inconnection with an added, outer cover sheet having good barrierproperties and being fastened, unbroken, outside the edge of the saidlabel. This outer sheet will safely remain covering the label on theinner sheet until the outer sheet is removed, and correspondingly boththe inner sheet and the label will be extra proteced until the packingis opened. The label will remain fixed to the inner sheet, such that itcan still identify the contents and the keeping date thereof.

Here the invention has been related to packings of the undercup type,which will normally hold a regular pile of meat slices, but the sameprinciples may well be used also in connection with flat undertraytypes, where the slices, lying flat in mutually staggered positions,form a flat layer. These packings are not normally provided withreclosing means, but with the use of the invention this will be possiblein an easy and cheap manner.

In the following the invention is described in more detail withreference to the drawing, in which

FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective views of a packing according to theinvention,

FIG. 3 is a sectional view thereof, and

FIG. 4 is a further perspective view thereof.

FIGS. 1, 3 and 4 illustrate a packing comprising a lower cup member 2having an upper mouth edge 4 and an edge flange 6 projecting outwardlytherefrom. To the top side of this flange there is firmly welded a coversheet 8 having on its top side a paper label 10, which is positionedsuch that preferably all the way round it projects outwardly to oralmost out to the mouth edge 4. In this cover sheet there is provided acutting line 11 extending along two of the mouth sides, still furtherspaced therefrom; optionally, at a pair of opposed corners of thepacking this line may continue along the adjacent sides so as toterminate in welding areas 12. Over these layers 8 and 10 a barriersheet 14 is laid, secured by peel seal welding to the top side of thecover sheet 8 in an annular area above the edge flange 6. In a mannerknown per se this welding is not effected in a corner area outside themarked line 16, whereby at this place a gripping flap 18 is provided.

The outer barrier sheet 14 is transparent, such that the paper label 10is visible through this sheet. When the packing is taken in use thesheet 14 is torn off entirely, as shown in progress in FIG. 1. Therebythe label 10 is uncovered, this label being secured to the underlyingsheet 8 by means of a pressure sensitive adhesive and also beingprovided with a seizable, non-adhering corner flap 20.

When this flap 20 is gripped and lifted the label 10 will be lifted,FIG. 2, whereby also the part of the cover- or undersheet 8 locatedinside the cutting line 11 will be lifted. As clearly shown in FIG. 2,this part of the sheet will leave an uncovered, self-adhering edge striparea of the slightly protruding label 10, while on the lower part 2there is correspondingly formed a free mouthing edge 22, which islocated shortly inside the edge 4 and obviously follows the cutting line11.

This lifting of the label 10 with underlying sheet portion 8 can beeffected freely until the fold-up line designated f in FIG. 2 proceedsat both ends to the end areas 12 of the cutting line 11, i.e. to themarked dot-and-dash-line s. The lifting may proceed reasonably easilyuntil the line f reaches these areas, whereafter a further lifting willrequire a real tearing of the sheet 8, this requiring a much higherforce. As indicated in FIGS. 2 and 4 it has been found suitable tohereby define a maximum opening corresponding roughly to half themouthing area of the lower part 2 or just somewhat more, this beingsufficient for an easy taking out of slices from the packing.

By a following lying down or folding back of the lifted part of thelabel 10, the label will automatically be laid back almost exactly inits original position, without this requiring special attention, becausethe label still adheres to a rather large surface area of the sheet 8 inthe remaining, non-lifted area, and with the associated good guiding thelabel will thus be guided back to the position in which its freelyprojecting adhering edge portion will close the mouth opening byadherence to the inwardly projecting edge portion of the cover sheet 8along the edge 22 thereof. Thereby a fully sufficient reclosing of thepacking will be achieved, and in the same manner the packing may beopened and reclosed the required number of times.

Optionally, the weldings 12 may be avoided, if the cover sheet 8 isstrong enough to resist a tearing-up at the ends of the cutting line.Alternatively it will be possible to make use of bent cutting line endsas shown at 12' in FIG. 4.

In practice it can be a relatively expensive measure to establish thenon-adhering flap area 20 on the otherwise adhering label 10,particularly as this partial area is a corner area of a rectangularlabel. It can be less costly to provide a non-adhering flap whichprotrudes slightly from a side edge of the label, and there may be spacefor that if the top sheet 14 is welded to the edge flange 6 only alongan outermost edge area thereof.

This problem, however, may also be solved otherwise, viz. by arrangingthe cutting line 11 to extend closely along the outer contour of thecorner area 20. With a finger tip the user may then press this areadownwardly and thereby get hold in the corner for a subsequent lifting.Normally, the reclosing in this area will not, then, be fully tight, butthe leak will be relatively small, and the users are not in advance usedto any tight reclosing, as the said reclosing lids dot not provide forany tight closing.

It is deemed unnecessary to explain in more detail the production of thesheet and label system, as there are no special problems in this. Onlyit should be mentioned that the cutting line 11 should be interrupted ina few, almost pointlike areas, which are easily broken by the lifting ofthe label and the associated part of the cover sheet. Hereby the coversheet can be prepared without problems prior to the following mountingof the label 10.

Optionally the upper barrier sheet 14 may be peelably welded directly tothe edge flange 6 of the lower part, if this takes place in an outerarea outside the edge of the underlying cover sheet 8, the edge of whichshould then be welded non-peelably to the remaining inner part of theedge flange. The label 10 need not be of paper, as it may well be aplastics sheet, and in principle it may well be arranged in a mannersuch that it projects outwardly past the inner mouthing edge 4 of thelower part. The cutting line 11 may extend outside of this mouthingedge, when only the sheet is not welded to the edge flange inside of thecutting line. For reasons of safety, however, it is preferred, asmentioned, that the sheet has an inwardly protruding edge portion, asthe positioning accuracy of the sheet 8 should not then be extremelyhigh. The edge of the label 10 should correspondingly extend slightlyoutside the cutting line, but also slightly inside the mouthing edge,such that it will not happen to reach into the welding area on the edgeflange.

As already mentioned the underpart should not necessarily be shaped as adeep cup, as it may as well be shaped as a flat tray.

Preferably the materials in the two sheet layers 8 and 14 selected orprepared such that these sheets may both be welded to the edge flange 6by a single welding operation, which, in the illustrated embodiment,will result in the sheet 8 being welded to the flange 6, while the outersheet 14 is concurrently peel welded to the edge portion of the coversheet 8.

I claim:
 1. A sales packing of the type comprising a more or less cupshaped underpart having an outwardly projecting edge flange, to whichthere is secured, by welding, a cover sheet belonging to a packingclosing system for tight original closing and for reclosing,respectively, characterized in that the reclosing system of the packingis of the type comprising a cover sheet having a self adhesive paper orfoil label stretching outwardly somewhat beyond a cutting line, which isprovided in the sheet so as to extend along at least a substantial partof the length of the upper mouthing edge of the underpart, the coversheet outside the cutting line being rigidly welded to the edge flangeof the underpart, and the tight original closure of the packing beingconstituted by a barrier forming uppermost sheet, which, by a peelablewelding, is removably secured to to the top side of the edge area of thecover sheet or directly to the said edge flange outside of the edge ofthe cover sheet.
 2. A packing according to claim 1, in which the labelis adhering all over its lower side, and in which the cutting line at agripping area extends quite closely to the adjacent edge portion of thelabel.
 3. A packing according to claim 1, in which the cutting lineextends along the said mouthing edge, above the mouthing and slightlyspaced from that edge, while the label extends in a similar manner, onlystill less spaced from the mouthing edge.
 4. A packing according toclaim 1, in which the sheets are of materials allowing them to be weldedby one welding operation in a rigid and a peelable manner, respectively.